


Grammar Lessons for Cole

by Delouest



Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-09-06
Updated: 2015-09-06
Packaged: 2018-04-19 11:20:46
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 942
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4744409
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Delouest/pseuds/Delouest
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“Cole... Coal... It's used to start a fire, but I’m trying to put them out. Why do words want to confuse me? So many words, with so many meanings. Why do they have to share the sounds?”<br/>~*~<br/>Varric and Cole discuss homophones</p>
            </blockquote>





	Grammar Lessons for Cole

No matter how long they traveled, the Hissing Wastes remained unchanged. The same sand, dunes and the occasional ruin interrupted the horizon as far as they could see. The Inquisition couldn’t travel when the sun burnt their heads from above and the sand burnt their feet from below. So they waited - some of them more patiently than the others - huddled under loosely draped tarps that would have flapped had their been a breeze. Despite the heat, a fire crackled in the pit they crowded around as they roasted bits of bread and cheese on sticks while they waited for the sun to set to move on.

Cole’s stick had no food on it. No one could remember ever seeing him eat, those who could remember him at all. Instead, he dug his stick in the coals, stirring the embers.

The group sat in silence until Cole spoke up, eyes still low and staring at the flames. “Cole... Coal... It's used to start a fire, but I’m trying to put them out.” Cole’s voice was almost a whine, it strained against his throat in frustration.

“What’s that, kid?” Varric asked.

“Why do words want to confuse me? So many words, with so many meanings. Why do they have to share the sounds?”

Varric sighed and rubbed at his temples. He felt a pang of guilt for being annoyed at the boy for not ever answering his questions directly. He didn’t like being short with Cole. He knew the boy never meant to annoy, knew that he would try to make him forget if he bothered him too much. But Varric didn’t want that. So he took a breath and tried again.

“Cole, I know you think you’re explaining yourself, but I’m not following. One more time for those of us who were up late last night fighting Vints until the sun came up.”

From below his hat, Cole gestured to the Inquisition flag that earlier that night the Inquisitor had stuck into the ground. “We claim the land and raise the flag and then the sun’s rays claim the flag.”

“Er, sure?” Varric said.

He lifted a finger and pointed at the healer who was tending to a soldier who had stepped on a spider’s nest and had her foot bitten. “He’ll heal her heel.”

“That’s good, kid,” Varric said. “We want her to get better.”

Cole made a frustrated noise. “But that’s not the point. The healing is good, but the words are confusing. They sound the same, similar. Slippery words that share sounds but not meaning.”

“Ah,” Varric said, finally realizing what Cole was going on about. “You’ve come to the right person. As a man of words-”

“You are a dwarf...” Cole cut in.

Varric sighed. “True, but not what I meant. I’m a man of words. A _writer_. You’re talking about homophones.”

“Well they’re confusing.”

“Yes, well. So are you, kid.” Across the fire, Blackwall chuckled. Varric continued. “Why the sudden frustration with homophones?”

Cole shook his head and rocked back and forth slightly. “Words are confusing enough without some of them impersonating each other.”

Varric considered a moment before standing. He held a hand out to Blackwall to help him up. “How about this, kid. Here’s Blackwall.” Varric patted Blackwall on the back, and the warrior puffed up a bit since he was on display, hands on his hips while Cole looked him over. Across the fire, Malika rolled her eyes but said nothing. “Now, you know that he’s a man, and not a black wall. Think of it like that. Sometimes words have a couple meanings, but you know which ones they are in context. Does that.. help?”

Cole was still seated. Blackwall, though not very tall, was towering over him. The sun was high behind them, casting Cole in his long shadow.

“He is much bigger than me. Almost… like a wall.”

Blackwall grinned. “I suppose I am, lad. I never really thought about it.”

“And that’s just in the stomach,” Varric added from behind his hand. Blackwall’s smile fell and he crossed his arms.

“Funny one, dwarf.”

Blackwall and Varric bickered for a moment, neither looking down to see that Cole had retreated from the circle. When they saw him again, he was standing away from the fire, looking out over the horizon.

“But what about me? I am Cole, but _he_ was Cole. I took his name, took his body. But we are not the same.”

The lost look on the spirit boy’s face was too much for Varric. He came up behind him and placed a hand on his shoulder. “No, Cole. You’re not the same. You’re right. You’re like the words that sound the same but aren’t. And that’s a good thing.”

“I’m a homophone?”

Varric shrugged. “Yeah, kid. You get to have your own meaning.”

The moment was apparently too much for Sera, who huffed and stood. “You lot are weird, yeah? Had enough of this touchy-feely shite.” She plucked the bread she had been toasting from the end of her stick and shoved it in her mouth. If the cheese that had been melting over it was too hot, she kept it to herself, but fanned her mouth nonetheless. After chewing a moment, she opened her mouth, stuck out a tongue full of mashed bread and crossed her eyes at Cole before retreating to one of the tents.

“See, Cole,” Varric said. “The other Cole never could have annoyed Sera as much as you.” He pressed a hand to the boy’s back and steered him back to the fire. “Come on. Just wait until I explain what a synonym is.” 


End file.
